Method and apparatus for multi-zone, multi-frequency ultrasound image reconstruction with sub-zone blending

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods of ultrasound imaging of an object that includes multiple depth zones. Each of the zones can be imaged using a different frequency, or the same frequency as another zone. A method includes imaging a first zone using plane wave imaging, imaging a second zone using tissue harmonic imaging, and imaging a third zone using fundamental and subharmonic deep imaging. The depth of each zone can vary based on the ultrasonic array, and correspondingly, the F # used for imaging the zone. In an example, zones can be imaged at different F #&#39;s, for example, at F #1 for the first zone, at F #2, F #3, or F #6 for one or more zones that extend deeper into the object than the first zone. The method can also include forming an image based on the received signals from the multiple zones, and blending the transitions between the zones.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The disclosed subject matter generally relates to systems and methodsfor ultrasound imaging, and more specifically to a multi-zone B-modeultrasound imaging scheme.

SUMMARY

For purposes of summarizing, certain aspects, advantages, and novelfeatures have been described herein. It is to be understood that not allsuch advantages may be achieved in accordance with any one particularembodiment. Thus, the disclosed subject matter may be embodied orcarried out in a manner that achieves or optimizes one advantage orgroup of advantages for ultrasound imaging without achieving alladvantages as may be taught or suggested herein.

With the constant growth of the medical device industry, the demand fornew medical devices that can process and provide useful insightsregarding the collected data is also increasing. The ultrasound imagingsystems and methods as described herein, can allow ultrasound imagingdata be collected via a handheld ultrasound imaging device and displayedvia a graphical user interface (GUI) on a user device.

The ultrasound systems and methods as described herein can provide amulti-zone (e.g., a triple-zone) multi-frequency, multi-imaging-modalityscheme. An ultrasound system that implements a triple-zone embodimentutilizes an imaging method that includes three different depth zoneswith a certain transmit and receive beamforming scheme for each of thezones. The thickness or depth (e.g., as defined from a surface) can bedifferent in various embodiments. For example, and as generallydescribed in an example herein, in one embodiment a first zone (“zone1”)can have a depth of from 0 to about 3.2 cm. A second zone (“zone2”) canhave a depth from about 3.2 cm to about 9.6 cm. A third zone (“zone3”)can have a depth from about 9.6 cm to about 19.2 cm. In zone1 the systemuses multi-angle plane-wave imaging. In zone2 the system uses focusedtransmits and Tissue Harmonic Imaging (THI) and can have a wide field-ofview (FOV). In zone3 the system uses focused transmits and fundamentaland subharmonic deep imaging. Using three different schemes fordifferent depths to generate ultrasound images advantageously can reduceclutter and increase range. For example, in zone2 due to both the higherattenuation at greater depths, a desire to reduce clutter (e.g., due tofundamental frequency scattering) and utilize the range within whichnonlinear propagation of ultrasound has a noticeable signature, zone2utilizes THI and focused ultrasound transmissions. Different F #'s(focal length/diameter of the entrance pupil (effective aperture)) canalso be used in each of the multiple zones. For example, ultrasoundimaging in zone1 can utilize an F # of 0-1, ultrasound imaging in zone2can utilize an F # of 1-3, and ultrasound imaging zone3 can utilize an F# of 3-6. As one of skill in the art will appreciate, the notation “F #”refers to the f-number of the system, and relates to the ratio of thesystem's focal length f to the diameter d of the entrance pupil(sometimes referred to as the “clear aperture”). The F-number can affectthe depth of field (DoF), e.g., the range between the nearest andfarthest location where an object is acceptably in focus.

In one innovation, a method of generating an image of a target area thatincludes multiple depth zones using an ultrasound device, includesimaging a first zone by transmitting and receiving ultrasound signalsfrom an ultrasound array in the first zone using plane wave imaging, thefirst zone having a depth dimension that extends from a surface of anobject being imaged to a first depth; imaging a second zone bytransmitting and receiving ultrasound signals from the ultrasound arrayin the second zone using tissue harmonic imaging, the second depth zoneextending from the first depth to a second depth farther from thesurface of the object than the first depth, the first zone being betweenthe second zone and the ultrasound array; imaging a third zone bytransmitting and receiving ultrasound signals from the ultrasound arrayin the third zone using fundamental and subharmonic deep imaging, thethird zone extending from the second depth to a third depth farther fromthe surface of the object than the second depth, the second zone beingbetween the first zone and the third zone; and forming an image based onthe received signals from the first zone, the second zone, and the thirdzone. In some embodiments, the first depth is in the range of 0.5 cm toabout 10 cm. In some embodiments, the second depth is in the range of 2cm to about 18 cm. In some embodiments, the third depth is in the rangeof 6 cm to about 18 cm. In some embodiments, the first depth is about3.2 cm. In some embodiments, the second depth is about 9.6 cm. In someembodiments, the third depth is about 19.2 cm. In some embodiments, adepth extent of the imaging of the first zone corresponds to an F # of 0to about 1. In some embodiments, a depth extent of the imaging of thesecond zone corresponds to an F # of about 1 to about 3. In someembodiments, a depth extent of the imaging of the third zone correspondsto an F # of about 3 to about 6. In some embodiments, imaging the firstzone comprises accumulating signals from a plurality of angles of planewave transmissions to coherently accumulate beamformed images and form acomposite image. In some embodiments, accumulating signals for aplurality of angles of plane waves transmissions comprises accumulatingsignals for five or more angles. In some embodiments, accumulatingsignals for a plurality of angles of plane waves transmissions comprisesaccumulating signals for nine or more angles. In some embodiments,accumulating signals for a plurality of angles of plane wavestransmissions comprises accumulating signals for 11 or more angles. Insome embodiments, the method further comprises processing the signalsreceived in the second zone using power pulse inversion processing. Insome embodiments, imaging the second zone comprise transmitting aplurality of focused ultrasound transmissions at a certain frequency fIn some embodiments, imaging the third zone comprises utilizing focusedtransmits wherein transmitting and receiving the ultrasound signals areat the same frequency. In some embodiments, the method further compriseshorizontally blending patches in the second zone and the third zone. Insome embodiments, each patch in the second zone and each patch in thethird zone has a height of the entirety of the respective zone. In someembodiments, horizontally blending patches comprises coherently summingrespective phase and the amplitude information from neighboring patchesfor each pixel from respective receive beamforming for a pixel of itsown patch and for any overlapping patches that may also contain saidpixel. In some embodiments, the method further comprises verticallyblending patches at interfaces between the first zone and the secondzone, and the second zone and the third zone. In some embodiments, thearray comprises 4 rows, each row having 128 elements. In someembodiments, the method further comprises addressing each element of thearray during imaging of the first zone, imaging the second zone, andimaging the third zone. In some embodiments, a depth extent of theimaging of the first zone corresponds to an F # of 0 to about 1, whereina depth extent of the imaging of the second zone corresponds to an F #of about 1 to about 3, and wherein a depth extent of the imaging of thethird zone corresponds to an F # of about 3 to about 6. In someembodiments, imaging the first zone comprises imaging with an F # in therange of 0 to 1, wherein imaging the second zone comprises imaging withan F # in the range of 1 to 3, and imaging the third zone comprisesimaging with an F # in the range of 3 to 6. In some embodiments, thefirst zone is imaged with an F # smaller than the F # used to image thesecond zone, and the third zone is imaged with an F # greater than the F# used to image the second zone.

The details of one or more variations of the subject matter describedherein are set forth in the accompanying drawings and the descriptionbelow. Other features and advantages of the subject matter describedherein will be apparent from the description and drawings, and from theclaims. The disclosed subject matter is not, however, limited to anyparticular embodiment disclosed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification, show certain aspects of the subject matterdisclosed herein and, together with the description, help explain someof the principles associated with the disclosed implementations asprovided below.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a triple-zone, multi-frequency imagereconstruction scheme.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example of a pictorial representation oftransmitting plane waves at three angles into a medium for a plane waveimaging zone.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of an aspect of image compositing,illustrating receive beamforming done within patches where the leftportion of this figure shows rectangular-shaped patches and the rightportion of this figure are annular sector-shaped.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of how a 50% overlap into adjacent patchesmay look like for both a perpendicular field of view (see ‘AB overlap’region) or for a wider angle field of view (see ‘DE’ overlap), accordingto some embodiments.

FIG. 5 illustrates in example of how an overlap into vertically adjacentpatches may look like both for a perpendicular field of view (see ‘ABoverlap’ region) or for a wider angle field of view (see ‘CD’ overlap),according to some embodiments.

FIG. 6 illustrates an example of how the focal points for patches withinzone2 or zone3 could be arranged in either a Horizontal or Radialscheme, with the left portion of this figure showing horizontal focalpoints and the right portion of this figure showing radial focal points,according to some embodiments.

FIG. 7 illustrates a system that includes a handheld ultrasonic devicein communication with one or more other devices network, the networkbeing either wired or wireless.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart of a process for three zone ultrasonicimaging where (i) imaging the first zone or the second zone includesforming a thick slice image of the first zone or the second zone, or(ii) imaging the first zone and the second zone includes forming a thickslice image of the first zone and the second zone.

The figures may not be to scale in absolute or comparative terms and areintended to be exemplary. The relative placement of features andelements may have been modified for the purpose of illustrative clarity.Where practical, the same or similar reference numbers denote the sameor similar or equivalent structures, features, aspects, or elements, inaccordance with one or more embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF CERTAIN INVENTIVE ASPECTS

In the following, numerous specific details are set forth to provide athorough description of various embodiments. Certain embodiments may bepracticed without these specific details or with some variations indetail. In some instances, certain features are described in less detailso as not to obscure other aspects. The level of detail associated witheach of the elements or features should not be construed to qualify thenovelty or importance of one feature over the others. Although many ofthe examples relate to a handheld ultrasound device, the describedsystems and methods can also be incorporated into larger devices thatare not necessarily handheld.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a triple-zone, multi-frequency imagereconstruction scheme in accordance with certain aspects of thisinvention. More specifically, FIG. 7 illustrates an array 702 that canbe positioned near the surface of an object to collect ultrasound data,and depicts a representation of a triple-zone, multi-frequency,multi-imaging-modality method that can be used in a handheld ultrasounddevice. The “object” can be, for example, a human, any type of animal(e.g., a horse, a dog, and the like) or another type of object that hasa depth dimension that may benefit from this method of imaging. In someembodiments, the F # for zone1 can be greater than 1, for example, 1.1,1.2. 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, or greater. Generally, the F # for zone1 is lessthan the F # for zone2, which is less than the F # for zone3. The depth,or thickness of each zone can vary with implementation, and may be basedon the nature of the object being imaged. For example, how the materialcomprising the object attenuates ultrasonic waves, or where a particulartarget of interest in the object is located. In some embodiments, thefirst zone can extend from the surface of the object being imaged to afirst depth such that the first zone has a certain thickness (e.g., 2.5cm-4.5 cm), the second zone can extend from the first depth to a seconddepth, and the third zone can extend from the second depth to a thirddepth. In some embodiments, the first and second zone can overlap, andthe second and third zone can overlap—such embodiments may help generateadditional data in the area of the transition from one zone to anotherwhich may help improve images that are generated that include theboundary regions of the first zone to the second zone and/or the secondzone to the third zone. The depth of each zone can be dependent on thefull aperture of the ultrasonic array being used. Various embodimentsmay use arrays having a different number or rows, a different number ofelements in each row, and a different elevation and azimuth pitch of thearray. In some embodiments, the first depth may be in the range of 0.0cm (e.g., on or adjacent to the surface of object) to about 10 cm, thesecond depth may be in the range of 2 cm to about 18 cm, and the thirddepth may be in the range of 6 cm to about 18 cm. In the exampleillustrated in FIG. 7 , the F # of zone1 is 0-1, the F # of zone2 is1-3, and the F # or zone3 is 3-6. In this example, the depth of zone1can be in the range of 0 (e.g., the surface of the object being imaged)to about 3.2 cm, the depth of zone2 can be in the range of about 3.2 cmto about 9.6 cm, and the depth of zone3 can be in the range of about 9.6to about 19.2 cm. In some embodiments, the first depth extends adistance from the array of, for example, 0.0, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3. 0.4, 0.5,0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 1.4, 1.5, 1.6, 1.7, 1.8, 1.9,2.0, 2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.4, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, 3.1, or 3.2 cm,plus or minus 0.05 cm, e.g., from the array. In some embodiments, thesecond depth extends a distance from the array of, for example, 2.0.2.1, 2.2, 2.3, 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 2.7, 2.8, 2.9, 3.0, 3.1, 3.2, 3.3, 3.4,3.5, 3.6, 3.7, 3.8, 3.9, 4.0, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 4.8,4.9, 5.0, 5.1, 5.2, 5.3, 5.4, 5.5, 5.6, 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, 6.0, 6.1, 6.2,6.3, 6.4, 6.5, 6.6, 6.7, 6.8, 6.9, 7.0, 7.1, 7.2, 7.3, 7.4, 7.5, 7.6,7.7, 7.8, 7.9, 8.0, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3, 8.4, 8.5, 8.6, 8.7, 8.8, 8.9, 9.0,9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5, 9.6, 9.7, 9.8, 9.9, 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3,10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7, 10.8, 10.8, 10.9, 11.0, 11.1, 11.2, or 11.3 cm,plus or minus 0.05 cm. In some embodiments, the third depth extends adistance from the array of, for example, 9.0, 9.1, 9.2, 9.3, 9.4, 9.5,9.6, 9.7, 9.8, 9.9, 10.0, 10.1, 10.2, 10.3, 10.4, 10.5, 10.6, 10.7,10.8, 10.8, 10.9, 11.0, 11.0, 11.1, 11.2, 11.3, 11.4, 11.5, 11.6, 11.7,11.8, 11.9, 12.0, 12.1, 12.2, 12.3, 12.4, 12.4, 12.6, 12.7, 12.8, 12.9,13.0, 13.1, 13.2, 13.3, 13.4, 13.5, 13.6, 13.7, 13.8, 13.9, 14.0, 14.1,14.2, 14.3, 14.4, 14.5, 14.6, 14.7, 14.8, 14.9, 15.0, 15.1, 15.2, 15.3,15.4, 15.5, 15.6, 15.7, 15.8, 15.9, 16.0, 16.1, 16.2, 16.3, 16.4, 16.5,16.6, 16.7, 16.8, 16.9, 17.0, 17.1, 17.2, 17.3, 17.4, 17.5, 17.6, 17.7,17.8, 17.9, 18.0, 18.1, 18.2, 18.3, 18.4, 18.5, 18.6, 18.7, 18.8, 18.9,19.0, 19.1, 19.2, 19.3, 19.4, 19.5, 19.6, 19.7, 19.8, 19.9, or 20 cm,plus or minus 0.05 cm. Although in various other examples, the depth ofzone1, zone2, and zone3 can be different, for certain preferredembodiments the starting and ending depths of the zones are within theranges shown in FIG. 7 . As described in more detail below, FIG. 7illustrates a process of ultrasound imaging where data is collected ineach of three “vertical” zones (corresponding to different depths ofimaging) using a different process. For example, in zone1 data iscollected using multi-angle plane-wave imaging. In zone2, data iscollected using focused transmissions and tissue harmonic imaging. Inzone3 data is collected using focused transmissions and fundamental andsubharmonic deep imaging. The data is collected in all three zones usingan array that is configured such that each element of the array isindividually addressable. In some embodiments, the array has four rowsof 128 elements, although other configurations are also possible.

A. 2D Imaging

a. Triple-zone Concept: The triple-zone concept is one example of amulti-zone imaging scheme that can utilize three different depth zones,and with different transmit and receive beamforming schemes in eachzone.

(i) Zone1: (PWI-zone): This zone would typically be within an F # of 0to about 1. Due to being primarily in the near-field, zone1 will beimaged using ‘Plane Wave Imaging’ (PWI). In addition to PWI, thisnear-zone benefits from the ability to be imaged at high-frequency sincethe overall attenuation within the imaged medium for a given frequencyand depth extent for zone1 can be set to the lower of dB gain in receivesystem and an F # limit (in this case 1). A number of angles of planewave transmission (11 for example) would be used to then coherentlyaccumulate their received beamformed images and composite ahigh-resolution image for this zone.

(ii) Zone2: (THI-zone): This zone would typically be within a depthextent corresponding to an F # of 1 through 3. It would utilize TissueHarmonic Imaging (THI). As before, this depth extent can be set based onthe expected attenuation for roundtrip of fundamental transmit frequencyand received harmonic frequency. A robust Power-pulse inversion (PPINV)method would be used for receiving the generated harmonics due to thenonlinear propagation of ultrasound in organic tissue. Due to both thedepth (leading to higher attenuation) and desire to reduce clutter (dueto fundamental frequency scattering) and the range within whichnonlinear propagation of ultrasound has a noticeable signature, thiszone will utilize THI and focused transmissions. The number of focusedtransmissions would depend on the transmitted frequency, zoneillumination target and achievable resolution. For the example shown, ata focal radius of ˜6.4 cm, a typical separation of the focal pointswould be approximately 2 mm at a transmitted frequency of 2.5 MHz andwith an array aperture of roughly 3.2 cm consisting of 128 elements inthe azimuth direction. Additionally, the number of focal points wouldalso be determined by the angle of Field of View (FOV). For example, awider field of view (more common) would lead to a wider “sector” imagewith larger number of focused transmissions, while a narrower field ofview (not common) will lead to lesser number of focused transmissions.Typically, the FOV doesn't exceed roughly 450 subtended at the center ofthe transmitting array.

(iii) Zone3: (fundamental-zone): This zone would typically be within adepth extent corresponding to an F # of 3 through 6. It would utilizeFocused Transmits similar to in zone2, but instead of THI, both thetransmit and receive would be at the transmitted frequency itself. Asbefore, this depth extent can be set based on the expected attenuationfor roundtrip of ultrasound under typical attenuation assumptions. Thenumber of focused transmissions would depend on the transmittedfrequency, zone illumination target and achievable resolution. For theexample shown, at a focal radius of ˜14 cm, a typical separation of thefocal points would be approximately 2 mm at a transmitted frequency of2.5 MHz and with an array aperture of roughly 3.2 cm consisting of 128elements in the azimuth direction. Note that the full-width athalf-maximum (FWHM) will likely be larger than 2 mm (for the exampleshown) because of distance from the array. However typically at thisdepth the granularity of focused transmissions needs to remain fine (orbe finer) to get enough illumination into this deep zone. Additionally,the number of focal points would also be determined by the angle ofField of View (FOV). For example, a wider field of view (more common)would lead to a wider “sector” image with larger # of focusedtransmissions, while a narrower field of view (not common) will lead tolesser number of focused transmissions. Typically, the FOV doesn'texceed roughly 450 subtended at the center of the transmitting array.

b. Beamforming:

(i) Zone1: Zone1 is a PWI-zone. Within this zone, the Transmitted waveswill be sent in an unfocused (or far-focused) manner. The received waveswill be focused at every point. Receive beamforming will be done bycalculating roundtrip delay information for each pixel to every elementin the aperture.

1. Intermediate vertical scan lines: Depending on the ratio oftransmitted wavelength to the azimuthal separation between elements inthe array, there may or may not be intermediate vertical scan-linescomputed during images reconstruction in addition to the lines that havetimeseries information for each of the receiving elements. The presenceof these lines depends on whether there's enough coherent delay andphase information to create pixels with useful information content alongthese intermediate vertical lines.

2. Receive Aperture: A further enhancement to Receive beamforming is toapply an adjustable aperture that's correct for every pixel for whichbeamforming is being done.

3. Receive Apodization: A further enhancement is to also apply anapodization during Receive beamforming to further improve the quality ofthe reconstructed image.

4. Transmit Apodization: Yet another enhancement to this method is toapply an apodization also to the transmitted “Plane Wave” by shaping thetransmitted waveform during transmit so that the overall plane wave hasthe desired transmit wavefront amplitude shape.

5. Receive Beamforming for Angled Transmissions: For this ‘Plane Wave’imaging zone, there'll be a sequence of image acquisitions that'll bedone by transmitting these Plane Waves at various angles into the mediumand beamforming the received waveforms for each of those cases. Apictorial representation of three such angles is shown below in FIG. 2 ,which illustrates an example of transmitting plane waves at three anglesinto a medium for a plane wave imaging zone. In various embodiments, thereconstructed image for each angled transmission can be coherentlysummed (with phase and amplitude information) or summed up after thepixel intensity has been computed. The implementation choice betweenthese two methods can be dependent on various factors such as thefrequency, angle of transmission, etc., which can determine whethercoherent summation leads to useful information content in areconstructed image. The number of angles will be limited by thegranularity with which the hardware can transmit them, the overallacquisition time (which would depend on the roundtrip time within themaximum extent allowable for zone1), and also any computational limitsof associated hardware for beamforming. It'll typically span the rangeof interest expected to yield enough clutter reduction in thereconstructed image within this zone. For the example shown in FIG. 2 ,the total number of anticipated angles for Plane Wave imaging withinzone1 is 11, at a granularity of ˜2°, hence covering the span from −10°through +10°. For ultrasound-guided needle procedures a few relativelysteep angles (up to 450 or so) may be included in the mix to attempt toget signal from needles that may be at steeper angles of ingress.

6. Time-averaging: Another method that may be used for enhancing thequality of image is dependent on the speed with which images can bereconstructed within this zone. Since this zone is expected to beshallow, the Transmit+Receive round-trip time is not expected to belarge. In addition, beamforming within this zone will be relativelyfaster due to reduced number of pixels. Therefore, in addition to theopportunity to add more angled transmissions, this zone will also beable to benefit from the time-averaging of images collected over arelatively short period of time (e.g., less than a second). For example,time-averaging of images accumulated over a few milliseconds.

(iii) Zone2: Zone2 is a THI-zone. Within this zone, the Transmittedwaves will be sent in a focused manner to the number of focal pointsappropriate to the field of view and frequency of transmission. Thereceived waves will be focused at every point in the reconstructed imagefor Zone2. Receive beamforming will be done by calculating roundtripdelay information for each pixel to every element in the aperture. Thiszone will utilize a method of Tissue Harmonic imaging that's commonlyknown as Power Pulse Inversion Imaging (PPINV). The intrinsic advantagesof tissue harmonic imaging are superior definition of tissue andboundaries while leading to a reduction of speckle artifacts.PPINV-based THI method(s) utilize the advantage of deeper penetration atlower transmission frequencies. However, other methods for THI that mayutilize bandpass filtering upon receive—or—phasecancellation—or—encoding—or—other pulse inversion techniques may also beutilized in this zone.

1. Intermediate vertical scan lines: Depending on the ratio oftransmitted wavelength to the azimuthal separation between elements inthe array, there may or may not be intermediate vertical scan-linescomputed during images reconstruction in addition to the lines that havetimeseries information for each of the receiving elements. The presenceof these lines depends on whether there's enough coherent delay andphase information to create pixels with useful information content alongthese intermediate vertical lines.

2. Patch beamforming: Within this zone since each focused transmit eventtargets a particular focal point, it'd stand to reason then that Receivebeamforming be carried out in a near region (‘Patch’) of that focaltransmission point. The particular schemes and methods of patchbeamforming and patch-blending are explained in the Image Compositingsection (Section A→c)

3. Receive Aperture: A further enhancement to Receive beamforming is toapply an adjustable Receive aperture that's correct for every pixel forwhich beamforming is being done. In typical use, since Zone2 is expectedto span a range beyond a F-number of 1 (YL's design for instance willtarget F-number of 1 till 3 for Zone2), the entire lens aperture may bein use.

4. Transmit Aperture: A further enhancement to Transmit beamforming isto apply an adjustable aperture that's appropriate to each sub-zonewithin this zone. This aperture may be made proportional to the F-numberso that it (the aperture) gets larger for deeper imaging (to compensatefor attenuation) and slides across the full lens aperture until itattains full coverage for all cases at a particular depth. For pointsthat are deeper than that, the Transmit aperture will equal theintrinsic lens aperture itself. The intent behind using reduced transmitaperture for shallower points within Zone 2 also has to do with notinsonifying parts of the imaged medium for which beamforming will not bedone but they may still contribute to reverberation and other artifactsvia refraction into the area of interest for which beamforming will bedone. By reducing or minimizing transmitted waveforms in the shallowerportions of Zone2 unwanted reverberations and/or artifacts can also bereduced or minimized.

5. Receive Apodization: A further enhancement is to also apply anapodization during Receive beamforming to further improve the quality ofthe reconstructed image.

6. Transmit Apodization: Yet another enhancement to this method is toapply an apodization also to the transmitted wave by shaping thetransmitted waveform during transmit so that the overall focusedwavefront has the desired transmit amplitude shape from one end to theother of the transmitting aperture.

7. Time-averaging: Another method that may be used for enhancing thequality of image is dependent on the speed with which images can bereconstructed within this zone. In scenarios where the boundariesdefining the start and end of zone 2 are relatively shallow (but notcompletely encompassing zone1), the Transmit+Receive round-trip time mayend up being not large. In addition, beamforming within this zone incases where the start and end depths defining zone 2 are shallow, theoverall beamforming computations will be relatively faster due toreduced number of pixels. Therefore, in addition to the opportunity toadd more focused transmissions for better illumination, or theopportunity to deploy alternate methods of tissue inversion, this zonewill also be able to benefit from the time-averaging of imagesaccumulated over a few milliseconds.

(iii) Zone3: Zone3 is a fundamental frequency-zone. Within this zone,the Transmitted waves will be sent in a focused manner to the number offocal points appropriate to the field of view and frequency oftransmission. The received waves will be focused at every point in thereconstructed image for Zone3. Receive beamforming will be done bycalculating roundtrip delay information for each pixel to every elementin the aperture.

1. Intermediate vertical scan lines: Depending on the ratio oftransmitted wavelength to the azimuthal separation between elements inthe array, there may or may not be intermediate vertical scan-linescomputed during images reconstruction in addition to the lines that havetimeseries information for each of the receiving elements. The presenceof these lines depends on whether there's enough coherent delay andphase information to create pixels with useful information content alongthese intermediate vertical lines. In typical use these additionalvertical scan lines may NOT be there since zone3 will typically be deepenough that at typical transmission frequencies suited to such depthsthe Full-Width-At-Half_Maximum (FWHM) beam diameter might be largeenough that interpolated scan lines may not be useful.

2. Patch beamforming: Within this zone since each focused transmit eventtargets a particular focal point, it'd stand to reason then that Receivebeamforming be carried out in a near region (‘Patch’) of that focaltransmission point. The particular schemes and methods of patchbeamforming and patch-blending are explained in the Image Compositingsection (Section A→c).

3. Receive Aperture: A further enhancement to Receive beamforming is toapply an adjustable Receive aperture that's correct for every pixel forwhich beamforming is being done. In typical use, for deep imaging withZone3, the entire lens aperture may be in use.

4. Transmit Aperture: A further enhancement to Transmit beamforming isto apply an adjustable aperture that's appropriate to each sub-zonewithin this zone. This aperture may be made proportional to the F-numberso that it grows for deeper imaging (to compensate for attenuation) andslides across the full lens aperture until it attains full coverage forall cases at a particular depth. For points that are deeper than that,the Transmit aperture will equal the intrinsic lens aperture itself. Theintent behind using reduced transmit aperture for shallower pointswithin Zone 3 also has to do with not insonifying parts of the imagedmedium for which beamforming will not be done but they may stillcontribute to reverberation and other artifacts via refraction into thearea of interest for which beamforming will be done. In typical use, fordeep imaging with Zone3, the entire lens aperture will be in use.

5. Receive Apodization: A further enhancement is to also apply anapodization during receive beamforming to further improve the quality ofthe reconstructed image.

6. Transmit Apodization: Yet another enhancement to this method is toapply an apodization also to the transmitted wave by shaping thetransmitted waveform during transmit so that the overall focusedwavefront has the desired transmit amplitude shape from one end to theother of the transmitting aperture.

7. Time-averaging: Another method that may be used for enhancing thequality of image is dependent on the speed with which images can bereconstructed within this zone. In scenarios where the boundariesdefining the start and end of zone 3 are relatively shallow (but notcompletely encompassing zone1 and/or zone2), the Transmit+Receiveround-trip time may end up being not large. In addition, beamformingwithin this zone in cases where the start and end depths defining zone 3are relatively shallow, the overall beamforming computations will berelatively faster due to reduced number of pixels. Therefore, inaddition to the opportunity to add more focused transmissions for betterillumination, or the opportunity to deploy alternate methods of tissueinversion, this zone may also be able to benefit from the time-averagingof images accumulated over a few ms. In typical use scenarios howeverthis will not be the case since zone3 is targeted toward deep imagingand hence by definition will likely not be able to benefit from this.

8. Subharmonic THI-based image quality enhancement: Zone3 may also lenditself to the ability to deploy subharmonic imaging wherein lowerfrequency harmonic components are computed to get better resolution athigher depths. In such cases, this zone may utilize a method of TissueHarmonic imaging that's commonly known as Power Pulse Inversion Imaging(PPINV). The intrinsic advantages of tissue harmonic imaging aresuperior definition of tissue and boundaries while leading to areduction of speckle artifacts. PPINV-based THI method(s) utilize theadvantage of deeper penetration at lower transmission frequencies.However, other methods for THI that may utilize bandpass filtering uponreceive—or—phase cancellation—or—encoding—or—other pulse inversiontechniques may also be utilized in this zone.

c. Image Compositing:

(i). Beamforming patches: zone2 and zone3: Within zone2 and zone3 asnoted earlier there will be multiple Focused Transmissions. Thesefocused transmissions may or may not be on a radial arc (e.g., they canbe on a horizontal focal line). The separation between them isdetermined based on the frequency of transmit, the FWHM characteristicof the focused beam at the focal point and focal zone. Since thetransmitted energy is to a focal point it stands to reason thatbeamforming only makes sense within a ‘patch’ around the focal pointsince that's the portion of the field of view that was illuminatedduring insonification. Therefore, within both zone2 and zone3 (zonesthat utilize focused transmissions), receive beamforming will only bedone within ‘patches’. These patches will typically be subsectionswithin respective zones. The shapes of the patches may be rectangular(for example if the boundaries between zone1 and zone2 or between zone2and zone3 are straight-line cuts in the field of view), annular sector(for example if the boundaries between zone1 and zone2 or between zone2and zone3 are arcs at specific radii delimiting those zones) or othershapes that will typically encompass the focal zone across a verticalspan. The typical height of these patches will be the entirety of a zoneheight (vertical or radial as the case may be). The typical width ofthese patches will be set based on the FWHM of the transmitted beam atthe focal point. An expectation of the patch boundary relative to thefocal point of transmission is that the focal point will sit near orclose to the center point within each patch.

(ii) Horizontal blending overlap of patches: zone2 and zone3: FIG. 3illustrates an example of an aspect of image compositing, illustratingreceive beamforming done within patches where the left portion of thisfigure shows rectangular-shaped patches and the right portion of thisfigure are annular sector-shaped. Both zone2 and zone3 will haveadjacent horizontal patches that extend all the way from the left to theright end of a zone as shown in FIG. 3 . FIG. 3 illustrates aperpendicular field of view 902 (A B C . . . ) and a wider angle fieldof view 904 (D E . . . ). The typical effect of beamforming withinspecific patches with their boundaries as shown in FIG. 3 will be thepresence of visible striations that would mark the boundary of eachpatch being beamformed. To create a smoothly reconstructed image thatremoves this artifact a careful blending across patches needs to bedone. There are multiple ways to do this. Our method of doing this is tohave each patch extend out to some extent into each adjacent patch (forexample a 50% overlap into adjacent patches allows each pixel within azone to effectively be covered by computation from two patches: (1) itsnative patch which has its own focal transmission and (2) it'sneighboring patch within which a separate focal transmission eventwould've been done.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of how a 50% overlap into adjacent patchesmay look like for both a perpendicular field of view 1002 (see ‘ABoverlap’ region) or for a wider angle field of view 1004 (see ‘DE’overlap), according to some embodiments. In some embodiments, to be ableto do receive beamforming, each patch would be roughly twice as wide(for 50% overlap into adjacent neighbors) as may be indicated by FIG. 3. For the case of radial patches, each patch would have twice as wide anangular span (see ‘DE overlap’ in FIG. 4 ) as would otherwise have beenindicated in FIG. 3 . It's important to note that while the exampleillustrated in FIG. 4 shows an overlap for each pixel within each patchonly from its two neighboring patches and for the shown shapes, therecan be other schemes for horizontal blending of patches of manydifferent shapes. For instance, each patch could have a complete overlap(or more) into neighboring patches, which would then lead to each pixelhaving effectively beamforming information from 3 patches (its own andboth of its neighbors). Typically, however, we expect patch overlaps tonot be much higher than 50% since the tightness of beam-diameter wouldlead to there not being enough useful information content fromneighbor-of-neighbor focal transmissions. In addition, widening thepatch-blending extent too much also runs the danger of picking up energyfrom side-lobes which can add to noise in the reconstructed image. Thissensitivity would be more pronounced at the near-end of the zonesclosest to the transmitting aperture since neighboring patches wouldhave a higher angular extent. Another method of deciding the amount ofpatch-overlap has to do with setting a baseline assumption on how manywavelengths of overlap to aim for laterally to pick up enough coherentinformation for blending (see, for example, “(iii) Horizontal blendingtechniques for patches” below) to maximize the signal to backgroundnoise level during blending.

(iii) Horizontal blending techniques for patches: zone2 and zone3: Theeasiest method of blending information from neighboring patches for eachpixel is to coherently sum up the phase and amplitude information fromdoing respective receive beamforming for that pixel for its own patchand for any overlapping patch(es) that may also have contained thatpixel. Other methods of horizontal blending may consist of a Gaussianblending profile that laterally (along a horizontal cut-line from pixelof interest into neighboring patches) or radially (along a radialcut-line from pixel of interest into neighboring patches) does coherentsummation of beamformed values but utilizes a Gaussian weightingalgorithm for the accumulated values. Other weighting profiles may alsobe utilized for relative weighting during this accumulation process. Athird method of accumulation may consist of not doing the coherentsummation at all and instead utilizing an ‘alpha blending’ on beamformedand then demodulated pixel brightness values. This alpha-blending wouldspan across neighboring patches similar to how the coherent summationmay have been carried out. There may also be hybrid methods thatcomprise of a mix of coherent summation *and* computed pixel brightnessblending across patches. Yet another method of doing horizontal blendingis to utilize a contrast-to-noise ratio and/or a signal-to-noise ratiometric that's constantly computed and then used to optimize both theblending curve that'd govern the weighting of pixel brightness valuesbeing accumulated (for both coherent summation and/or demodulated pixelbrightness accumulation) when moving from the focal point axis for agiven focused transmission into the neighboring patches.

(iv) Vertical blending overlap of patches: zone1/zone2 transition andzone2/zone3 transition: The justification for blending of patchesvertically at the interfaces between zone1 and zone—or—between zone2 andzone3 follows a similar reasoning as for adjacent horizontal patcheswithin zone2 or zone3. Since the respective zones may utilize differentimaging and beamforming techniques (for example, in a commonmanifestation of Yor Lab's triple-zone scheme, zone1 will behigher-frequency plane wave imaging whereas zone2 will be tissueharmonic imaging whereas zone3 will be lower frequency imaging fordeeper targets), once again the necessity to blend across these zonetransitions becomes important. Without an acceptable zone transitionblending mechanism, one would otherwise end up with visible demarcationlines between the zones. It is however possible to eliminate themaltogether while taking advantage of the sampled signal informationacross these zones. To create a smoothly reconstructed image thatremoves this boundary artifact between zones a careful blending acrosspatches needs to be done. There are multiple ways to do this. Our methodof doing this is to have each patch extend out to some extent into eachvertically adjacent patch (for example a ˜10% overlap into verticallyadjacent patches allows each overlapped pixel within a zone toeffectively be covered by computation from two vertically adjacentpatches: (1) its native patch which may have its own focal transmissionand (2) its vertically neighboring patch(es) within which a separatefocal transmission event may have been done.

FIG. 5 illustrates in example of how an overlap into vertically adjacentpatches may look like both for a perpendicular field of view (see ‘ABoverlap’ region) or for a wider angle field of view (see ‘CD’ overlap),according to some embodiments. To be able to do receive beamformingthen, each patch would be taller and extend into its neighboringvertical patches. For the case of radial patches, each patch radiallyextends into the patch(es) above and below it (if applicable) It'simportant to note that while FIG. 4 shows an overlap for each pixelwithin each patch only from its neighboring vertical patch and for theshown shapes, there can be other schemes for vertical blending ofpatches of many different shapes. For instance, each patch could have adiagonal overlap as well into adjacent vertical patches, which couldthen lead to some pixels for which beamforming would be computed frommore than 2 patches (its own and any other patches that overlap it).Typically, however we expect patch overlaps to only be into adjacentvertical neighboring patches since the tightness of beam-diameter wouldlead to there not being enough useful information content fromneighbor-of-neighbor focal transmissions that may necessitate a diagonalneighbor inclusion when doing this vertical blending. In addition,increasing the patch-blending extent too much vertically also runs thedanger of losing coherent information directly relevant to theparticular patch within a particular zone within which a focusedtransmission may have been done at a different frequency and/or if itwas to be computed utilizing tissue harmonic imaging. This sensitivitywould be more pronounced at the far-end of the overlap regions within azone since that would be deeper within the extent of any zone whereintrue beamforming would ideally have already determined the best qualityimage reconstruction consistent with the method applicable for thatzone. Another method of deciding the amount of vertical patch-overlaphas to do with setting a baseline assumption on how many wavelengths ofoverlap to aim for vertically to pick up enough coherent information forblending (see item iii below) to maximize the signal to background noiselevel during blending.

(v) Vertical blending techniques for patches: zone1/zone2 transition andzone2/zone3 transition: The easiest method of blending information fromvertical neighboring patches for each pixel is to coherently sum up thephase and amplitude information from doing respective receivebeamforming for that pixel for its own patch and for any overlappingpatch(es) that may also have contained that pixel. Other methods ofvertical blending may consist of a Gaussian blending profile thatvertically (along a vertical cut-line from pixel of interest intoneighboring vertical patches) or radially (along a radial cut-line frompixel of interest into neighboring vertical patches) does coherentsummation of beamformed values but utilizes a Gaussian weightingalgorithm for the accumulated values. Other weighting profiles may alsobe utilized for relative weighting during this accumulation process. Athird method of accumulation may consist of not doing the coherentsummation at all and instead utilizing an ‘alpha blending’ on beamformedand then demodulated pixel brightness values. This alpha-blending wouldspan across neighboring vertical patches similar to how the coherentsummation may have been carried out. There may also be hybrid methodsthat comprise of a mix of coherent summation *and* computed pixelbrightness blending across patches. Yet another method of doing verticalblending is to utilize a contrast-to-noise ratio and/or asignal-to-noise ratio metric that's constantly computed and then used tooptimize both the blending curve that'd govern the weighting of pixelbrightness values being accumulated (for both coherent summation and/ordemodulated pixel brightness accumulation) when moving vertically orradially along within the overlap region across neighboring verticalpatches

d. Other Considerations:

(i) Ultrasonic Array Frequency bandwidth: It's important to note thataccording to some embodiments the ultrasonic array that can be utilizedto enable the triple-zone, multi-frequency imaging scheme would have:(a) a wide enough bandwidth that it will support Tissue HarmonicImaging, and (b) enough output ultrasonic pressure to be able topenetrate deep enough to make all zones viable. In case neither (a) nor(b) is true, each zone however can still be imaged at its own frequency.In general, the imaging frequency would decrease as one goes from zone1to zone2 to zone3 to construct the deepest image possible since theamount of attenuation is directly proportional (in dB scale) tofrequency.

(ii) Electrical systems and transmit voltages: Similar to the frequencyof transmission, it may also be necessary to adjust the voltage at whichthe system drives elements in the ultrasonic array. Emitted energy istypically proportional to the square of voltage. In general, one wouldincrease the voltage for deeper imaging (roughly coinciding with zone3being at a higher voltage than zone2 which would be at a higher voltagethan zone1). However, there are multiple dimensions to this whichinclude but are not limited to the frequency of transmission, thetransmit aperture and transmit apodization, sharpness of focusobtainable from the ultrasonic array and its lens focal depth setting,the granularity at which elements may be sequenced in time to obtain anexpected wavefront shape etc. Because of the above noted factors, theTransmit voltage will just become one aspect of a multidimensionaloptimization. It can however be set either by a priori knowledge orexpectation of what combination may work best, or empirically viaexperimentation with the entire integrated system, or as an adaptivesystem that looks for the best obtainable contrast-to-noise ratio (CNR)or signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) or other metrics (e.g. clearing aroundknown target cysts within a phantom as part of a calibration step,quality of background speckle, minimum acceptable illumination and rangeof generated pixel brightness values etc.).

(iii) Beam diameter, Pulse Repetition Frequency, Attenuation and a fewother factors: A few aspects that can have direct impact on the extentof each zone, width of each patch, etc., are noted here. These are a fewnon-limiting examples of items for consideration to be adjusted for theentire imaging scheme to jointly produce a good quality image. As a oneof ordinary skill in the art will appreciate, additional aspects canalso be considered, or fewer aspects, depending at least in part theimplementation and particular goals of the implementation. Such itemsmay include:

1. Attenuation: The relative thicknesses and location of muscle vstissue which typically have a 2× attenuation ratio vs each other willinfluence the relative thickness of various zones. While the possibilityof using an AI system to automatically determine which medium is of whattype is certainly there, by and large this is an operator-setting andwill be set a priori at the beginning of an exam by operator (e.g. bypicking a clinical modality such as ‘small parts’ or ‘abdominal’ or‘lung’ etc.) and the information then used by the ultrasound system toset reasonable default depths and boundaries for each of the threezones.

2. Lens focal depth: The focal depth of the lens that would house theultrasonic array would likewise be set to maximize the finalreconstructed image quality. In general, since zone1 is a Plane Waveimaging zone it prefers ‘unfocused transmissions’, which zone2 and zone3are to be done with ‘focused transmission’. Therefore, a lens focallength which typically sits at the boundary between zone2 and zone3 willbe preferable since it'll (likely) be far enough away from zone1 toallow zone1 to be treated as an ‘unfocused transmit’ region, whileallowing lens focusing to improve the elevational resolution of thetransmitted beam for each of the focused transmissions into zone2 andzone3.

3. Array dimensions: The specific azimuth and elevational pitches andtransmit frequencies chosen for the array have direct impact on the beamdiameter and hence will directly impact the FWHM (full width at halfmaximum) in each focused patch within each zone (zone2 and zone3 in thisdisclosure). In additional the specific frequency of transmission willhave its own bandwidth roll-off for a particular array. Therefore, it'simportant to have the array dimensions and all transmit frequencies forit (not just the center frequency) to together enable the overallimaging scheme described in this disclosure. In addition, the ability toimage a wide FOV (field of view) relies on the ability to electronicallysteer the focal point of the emitted transmit wave to various pointswhich may or may not be directly underneath the array. That requires anazimuth separation of less than a wavelength of the transmitted wavefrequency.

4. Focal gain of array: The ability to electronically steer a beam at agiven frequency to an effective focal point that minimizes its FWHM (orat least sets it at the desired extent) is also an important determinantthat'll set the number of focused transmission patches. This FWHM is akey indicator of how easily an ultrasound system can discern objectswithin or out of its focused beam. In addition, a high focal gain willlead to a relatively high illumination and hence less need to repeatedlyinsonify the same or neighboring regions to extract a higher SNR (signalto noise ratio).

5. Beam diameter: The diameter of a focused beam is a function of manydifferent factors including the targeted transmit beam shape, thegranularity of sequenced transmission pulses across elements within arow or across multiple rows (if a 2-dimensional array were to be usedfor transmission), the frequency of transmission, the ultrasonic arraydimensions themselves (e.g. azimuth and elevational separation) and themedium itself (with its refraction characteristics for example) etc.This beam-diameter is a first-order determinant of the width of patches.A focused beam with a tight beam diameter will in general produce betterimages within its patch. A sequence of patches that are adequate to thatbeam diameter will then cover the entire imaged area within a zone.

6. PRF (Pulse repetition frequency): PRF refers to the rate at whichtransmissions may be emitted by the ultrasonic array. It has a directdependence on the depth being imaged *and* the imaging scheme beingutilized. There are many schemes for PRF, from pulses emitted at regularintervals to ‘burst mode’ where as many pulses as can be rapidly sentout and acquired are sent and then a high quality image composited, andthen the entire system may go into a somewhat lower power state beforethe next ‘burst’ may happen. As applied to zone2 and zone3, the PRFneeds to be set such that each patch within each of these zones cansuccessively get a focused beam and then its echoes completely acquiredbefore the next pulse is initiated. In the context of zone1, the PRFrefers to the rate at which multiple unfocused plane waves may beemitted to acquire a high quality image within this zone.

(iv) Focal point arrangements within zone2 and zone3: It's important tonote that the focal points within zone2 or zone3 may be arranged to fallon a Horizontal line within this zone, or a Radial line within thiszone. There are other arrangements possible too which may explicitlyaccount for relatively reduced focal gain along the edges of a zone(especially in the part of the zone nearer to the array) and use that topull in the focal points into a light parabolic shape. FIG. 6illustrates an example of how the focal points for patches within zone2or zone3 could be arranged in either a Horizontal or Radial scheme, withthe left portion of this figure showing horizontal focal points and theright portion of this figure showing radial focal points, according tosome embodiments. It is also possible to place multiple focal pointswithin the same patch via separate focused transmissions (as separatetransmit events into the same patch and then time-averaged oraccumulated over these sequential transmissions for receive beamformingpurposes). In this case each patch may be treated as a ‘super-patch’encompassing multiple transmissions. However, in this invention, eachfocused transmission to any particular point within the medium isconsidered to have its own patch. A focused transmission, however, hasoverlaps into horizontal or vertical neighboring patches and/or regionsfor receive beamforming purposes as described above in section c ImageCompositing.

FIG. 7 illustrates a system that includes a handheld ultrasonic devicein communication with one or more other devices network, the networkbeing either wired or wireless. In some embodiments, the systems,processes, and methods described herein are implemented using acomputing system, such as the one illustrated in FIG. 7 . Although thisdisclosure indicates that the disclosed methods, processes, and systemscan be implemented in a handheld ultrasonic device, such methods,processes, and systems can also be implemented in a non-handheldultrasonic device (e.g., any ultrasonic device). The example computersystem 1302 is in communication with one or more computing systems 1320and/or one or more data sources 1322 via one or more networks 1318. Invarious embodiments, the handheld ultrasound system 100 can also includefunctionality and components described in reference to the computersystem 1302. For example, in some embodiments, all of the imageformation processing is performed on the handheld ultrasound device 100,and images generated by the device 100 are provided via a network 1318(wireless or wired) to one or more other computer systems or devices forstorage, further processing or communication to another device, or fordisplay. In some embodiments, the handheld ultrasound device 100provides generated information to a mobile device, headset, smart phone,etc. While FIG. 7 illustrates an embodiment of a computing system 1302,it is recognized that the functionality provided for in the componentsand modules of computer system 1302 may be combined into fewercomponents and modules, or further separated into additional componentsand modules.

The computer system 1302 can comprise an ultrasound image analysismodule 1314 that carries out functions, methods, acts, and/or processesfor analysis and/or further processing of ultrasound informationgenerated by an ultrasound device, for example, a handheld ultrasounddevice 100 described herein. The ultrasound image analysis module 1314can be executed on the computer system 1302 by a central processing unit1306 discussed further below.

In general the word “module,” as used herein, refers to logic embodiedin hardware or firmware or to a collection of software instructions,having entry and exit points. Modules are written in a program language,such as JAVA, C or C++, PYTHON or the like. Software modules may becompiled or linked into an executable program, installed in a dynamiclink library, or may be written in an interpreted language such asBASIC, PERL, LUA, or Python. Software modules may be called from othermodules or from themselves, and/or may be invoked in response todetected events or interruptions. Modules implemented in hardwareinclude connected logic units such as gates and flip-flops, and/or mayinclude programmable units, such as programmable gate arrays orprocessors.

Generally, the modules described herein refer to logical modules thatmay be combined with other modules or divided into sub-modules despitetheir physical organization or storage. The modules are executed by oneor more computing systems, and may be stored on or within any suitablecomputer readable medium, or implemented in-whole or in-part withinspecial designed hardware or firmware. Not all calculations, analysis,and/or optimization require the use of computer systems, though any ofthe above-described methods, calculations, processes, or analyses may befacilitated through the use of computers. Further, in some embodiments,process blocks described herein may be altered, rearranged, combined,and/or omitted.

The computer system 1302 includes one or more processing units (CPU)1306, which may comprise a microprocessor. The computer system 1302further includes a physical memory 1310, such as random access memory(RAM) for temporary storage of information, a read only memory (ROM) forpermanent storage of information, and a mass storage device 1304, suchas a backing store, hard drive, rotating magnetic disks, solid statedisks (SSD), flash memory, phase-change memory (PCM), 3D XPoint memory,diskette, or optical media storage device. Alternatively, the massstorage device may be implemented in an array of servers. Typically, thecomponents of the computer system 1302 are connected to the computerusing a standards based bus system. The bus system can be implementedusing various protocols, such as Peripheral Component Interconnect(PCI), Micro Channel, SCSI, Industrial Standard Architecture (ISA) andExtended ISA (EISA) architectures.

The computer system 1302 includes one or more input/output (I/O) devicesand interfaces 1312, such as a keyboard, mouse, touch pad, and printer.The I/O devices and interfaces 1312 can include one or more displaydevices, such as a monitor, that allows the visual presentation of datato a user. More particularly, a display device provides for thepresentation of GUIs as application software data, and multi-mediapresentations, for example. The I/O devices and interfaces 1312 can alsoprovide a communications interface to various external devices. Thecomputer system 1302 may comprise one or more multi-media devices 1308,such as speakers, video cards, graphics accelerators, and microphones,for example.

The computer system 1302 may run on a variety of computing devices, suchas a server, a Windows server, a Structure Query Language server, a UnixServer, a personal computer, a laptop computer, and so forth. In otherembodiments, the computer system 1302 may run on a cluster computersystem, a mainframe computer system and/or other computing systemsuitable for controlling and/or communicating with large databases,performing high volume transaction processing, and generating reportsfrom large databases. The computing system 1302 is generally controlledand coordinated by an operating system software, such as z/OS, Windows,Linux, UNIX, BSD, SunOS, Solaris, MacOS, or other compatible operatingsystems, including proprietary operating systems. Operating systemscontrol and schedule computer processes for execution, perform memorymanagement, provide file system, networking, and I/O services, andprovide a user interface, such as a graphical user interface (GUI),among other things.

The computer system 1302 illustrated in FIG. 7 is coupled to a network1318, such as a LAN, WAN, or the Internet via a communication link 1316(wired, wireless, or a combination thereof). Network 1318 communicateswith various computing devices and/or other electronic devices. Network1318 is communicating with one or more computing systems 1320 and one ormore data sources 1322. The Ultrasound Image Analysis Module 1314 mayaccess or may be accessed by computing systems 1320 and/or data sources1322 through a web-enabled user access point. Connections may be adirect physical connection, a virtual connection, and other connectiontype. The web-enabled user access point may comprise a browser modulethat uses text, graphics, audio, video, and other media to present dataand to allow interaction with data via the network 1318.

Access to the Ultrasound Image Analysis Module 1314 of the computersystem 1302 by computing systems 1320 and/or by data sources 1322 may bethrough a web-enabled user access point such as the computing systems'1320 or data source's 1322 personal computer, cellular phone,smartphone, laptop, tablet computer, e-reader device, audio player, orother device capable of connecting to the network 1318. Such a devicemay have a browser module that is implemented as a module that usestext, graphics, audio, video, and other media to present data and toallow interaction with data via the network 1318.

The output module may be implemented as a combination of an all-pointsaddressable display such as a cathode ray tube (CRT), a liquid crystaldisplay (LCD), a plasma display, or other types and/or combinations ofdisplays. The output module may be implemented to communicate with inputdevices 1312 and they also include software with the appropriateinterfaces which allow a user to access data through the use of stylizedscreen elements, such as menus, windows, dialogue boxes, tool bars, andcontrols (for example, radio buttons, check boxes, sliding scales, andso forth). Furthermore, the output module may communicate with a set ofinput and output devices to receive signals from the user.

The input device(s) may comprise a keyboard, roller ball, pen andstylus, mouse, trackball, voice recognition system, or pre-designatedswitches or buttons. The output device(s) may comprise a speaker, adisplay screen, a printer, or a voice synthesizer. In addition a touchscreen may act as a hybrid input/output device. In another embodiment, auser may interact with the system more directly such as through a systemterminal connected to the score generator without communications overthe Internet, a WAN, or LAN, or similar network.

In some embodiments, the system 1302 may comprise a physical or logicalconnection established between a remote microprocessor and a mainframehost computer for the express purpose of uploading, downloading, orviewing interactive data and databases on-line in real time. The remotemicroprocessor may be operated by an entity operating the computersystem 1302, including the client server systems or the main serversystem, and/or may be operated by one or more of the data sources 1322and/or one or more of the computing systems 1320. In some embodiments,terminal emulation software may be used on the microprocessor forparticipating in the micro-mainframe link.

In some embodiments, computing systems 1320 who are internal to anentity operating the computer system 1302 may access the UltrasoundImage Analysis Module 1314 internally as an application or process runby the CPU 1306.

The computing system 1302 may include one or more internal and/orexternal data sources (for example, data sources 1322). In someembodiments, one or more of the data repositories and the data sourcesdescribed above may be implemented using a relational database, such asDB2, Sybase, Oracle, CodeBase, and Microsoft® SQL Server as well asother types of databases such as a flat-file database, an entityrelationship database, and object-oriented database, and/or arecord-based database.

The computer system 1302 may also access one or more databases 1322. Thedatabases 1322 may be stored in a database or data repository. Thecomputer system 1302 may access the one or more databases 1322 through anetwork 1318 or may directly access the database or data repositorythrough I/O devices and interfaces 1312. The data repository storing theone or more databases 1322 may reside within the computer system 1302.

In some embodiments, one or more features of the systems, methods, anddevices described herein can utilize a URL and/or cookies, for examplefor storing and/or transmitting data or user information. A UniformResource Locator (URL) can include a web address and/or a reference to aweb resource that is stored on a database and/or a server. The URL canspecify the location of the resource on a computer and/or a computernetwork. The URL can include a mechanism to retrieve the networkresource. The source of the network resource can receive a URL, identifythe location of the web resource, and transmit the web resource back tothe requestor. A URL can be converted to an IP address, and a DomainName System (DNS) can look up the URL and its corresponding IP address.URLs can be references to web pages, file transfers, emails, databaseaccesses, and other applications. The URLs can include a sequence ofcharacters that identify a path, domain name, a file extension, a hostname, a query, a fragment, scheme, a protocol identifier, a port number,a username, a password, a flag, an object, a resource name and/or thelike. The systems disclosed herein can generate, receive, transmit,apply, parse, serialize, render, and/or perform an action on a URL.

A cookie, also referred to as an HTTP cookie, a web cookie, an internetcookie, and a browser cookie, can include data sent from a websiteand/or stored on a user's computer. This data can be stored by a user'sweb browser while the user is browsing. The cookies can include usefulinformation for websites to remember prior browsing information, such asa shopping cart on an online store, clicking of buttons, logininformation, and/or records of web pages or network resources visited inthe past. Cookies can also include information that the user enters,such as names, addresses, passwords, credit card information, etc.Cookies can also perform computer functions. For example, authenticationcookies can be used by applications (for example, a web browser) toidentify whether the user is already logged in (for example, to a website). The cookie data can be encrypted to provide security for theconsumer. Tracking cookies can be used to compile historical browsinghistories of individuals. Systems disclosed herein can generate and usecookies to access data of an individual. Systems can also generate anduse JSON web tokens to store authenticity information, HTTPauthentication as authentication protocols, IP addresses to tracksession or identity information, URLs, and the like.

FIG. 8 illustrates a flowchart of a process 800 for generating an imageof a target area that includes multiple depth zones using an ultrasounddevice. At block 802, a handheld (or non-handheld) ultrasound device canperform the process 800 by imaging a first zone by transmitting andreceiving ultrasound signals from an ultrasound array in the first zoneusing plane wave imaging, the first zone having a depth dimension thatextends from a surface of an object being imaged to a first depth. Atblock 804 the process 800 continues by imaging a second zone bytransmitting and receiving ultrasound signals from the ultrasound arrayin the second zone using tissue harmonic imaging, the second depth zoneextending from the first depth to a second depth farther from thesurface of the object than the first depth, the first zone being betweenthe second zone and the ultrasound array. At block 806 the process 800can continue by imaging a third zone by transmitting and receivingultrasound signals from the ultrasound array in the third zone usingfundamental and subharmonic deep imaging, the third zone extending fromthe second depth to a third depth farther from the surface of the objectthan the second depth, the second zone being between the first zone andthe third zone. Finally, at block 808 the process 800 continues formingan image based on the received signals from the first zone, the secondzone, and the third zone.

Such methods can have various implementations. For example, variousembodiments may include one or more of the following aspects: firstdepth is in the range of 0.5 cm to about 10 cm; the second depth is inthe range of 2 cm to about 18 cm; wherein the third depth is in therange of 6 cm to about 18 cm; the first depth is about 3.2 cm pls orminus 2 cm, the second depth is 9.6 cm plus or minus 2 cm, and the thirddepth is 19.2 cm plus of minus 2 cm; a depth extent of the imaging ofthe first zone corresponds to an F # of 0 to about 1; a depth extent ofthe imaging of the second zone corresponds to an F # of about 1 to about3; a depth extent of the imaging of the third zone corresponds to an F #of about 3 to about 6; imaging the first zone comprises accumulatingsignals from a plurality of angles of plane wave transmissions tocoherently accumulate beamformed images and form a composite image;accumulating signals for a plurality of angles of plane wavestransmissions comprises accumulating signals for five or more angles;accumulating signals for a plurality of angles of plane wavestransmissions comprises accumulating signals for nine or more angles;accumulating signals for a plurality of angles of plane wavestransmissions comprises accumulating signals for 11 or more angles;processing the signals received in the second zone using power pulseinversion processing; imaging the second zone comprise transmitting aplurality of focused ultrasound transmissions at a single frequency f,horizontally blending patches in the second zone and the third zone;each patch in the second zone and each patch in the third zone has aheight of the entirety of the respective zone; horizontally blendingpatches comprises coherently summing respective phase and the amplitudeinformation from neighboring patches for each pixel from respectivereceive beamforming for a pixel of its own patch and for any overlappingpatches that may also contain said pixel; vertically blending patches atinterfaces between the first zone and the second zone, and the secondzone and the third zone; the array comprises 4 rows, each row having 128elements; and/or such methods further include addressing each element ofthe array during imaging of the first zone, imaging of the second zone,and imaging of the third zone.

One or more aspects or features of the subject matter disclosed orclaimed herein may be realized in digital electronic circuitry,integrated circuitry, specially designed application specific integratedcircuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) computerhardware, firmware, software, and/or combinations thereof. These variousaspects or features may include implementation in one or more computerprograms that may be executable and/or interpretable on a programmablesystem including at least one programmable processor, which may bespecial or general purpose, coupled to receive data and instructionsfrom, and to transmit data and instructions to, a storage system, atleast one input device, and at least one output device. The programmablesystem or computing system may include clients and servers. A client andserver may be remote from each other and may interact through acommunication network. The relationship of client and server arises byvirtue of computer programs running on the respective computers andhaving a client-server relationship to each other.

These computer programs, which may also be referred to as programs,software, software applications, applications, components, or code, mayinclude machine instructions for a programmable controller, processor,microprocessor or other computing or computerized architecture, and maybe implemented in a high-level procedural language, an object-orientedprogramming language, a functional programming language, a logicalprogramming language, and/or in assembly/machine language. As usedherein, the term “machine-readable medium” refers to any computerprogram product, apparatus and/or device, such as for example magneticdiscs, optical disks, memory, and Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs),used to provide machine instructions and/or data to a programmableprocessor, including a machine-readable medium that receives machineinstructions as a machine-readable signal. The term “machine-readablesignal” refers to any signal used to provide machine instructions and/ordata to a programmable processor. The machine-readable medium may storesuch machine instructions non-transitorily, such as for example as woulda non-transient solid-state memory or a magnetic hard drive or anyequivalent storage medium. The machine-readable medium may alternativelyor additionally store such machine instructions in a transient manner,such as for example as would a processor cache or other random accessmemory associated with one or more physical processor cores.

To provide for interaction with a user, one or more aspects or featuresof the subject matter described herein may be implemented on a computerhaving a display device, such as for example a cathode ray tube (CRT) ora liquid crystal display (LCD) or a light emitting diode (LED) monitorfor displaying information to the user and a keyboard and a pointingdevice, such as for example a mouse or a trackball, by which the usermay provide input to the computer. Other kinds of devices may be used toprovide for interaction with a user as well. For example, feedbackprovided to the user may be any form of sensory feedback, such as forexample visual feedback, auditory feedback, or tactile feedback; andinput from the user may be received in any form, including acoustic,speech, or tactile input. Other possible input devices include touchscreens or other touch-sensitive devices such as single or multi-pointresistive or capacitive trackpads, voice recognition hardware andsoftware, optical scanners, optical pointers, digital image capturedevices and associated interpretation software, and the like.

Implementation Considerations

One or more aspects or features of the subject matter disclosed orclaimed herein (e.g., processes and methods) may be realized in digitalelectronic circuitry, integrated circuitry, specially designedapplication specific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmablegate arrays (FPGAs) computer hardware, firmware, software, and/orcombinations thereof. These various aspects or features may includeimplementation in one or more computer programs that may be executableand/or interpretable on a programmable system including at least oneprogrammable processor, which may be special or general purpose, coupledto receive data and instructions from, and to transmit data andinstructions to, a storage system, at least one input device, and atleast one output device. The programmable system or computing system mayinclude clients and servers. A client and server may be remote from eachother and may interact through a communication network. The relationshipof client and server arises by virtue of computer programs running onthe respective computers and having a client-server relationship to eachother.

These computer programs, which may also be referred to as programs,software, software applications, applications, components, or code, mayinclude machine instructions for a programmable controller, processor,microprocessor or other computing or computerized architecture, and maybe implemented in a high-level procedural language, an object-orientedprogramming language, a functional programming language, a logicalprogramming language, and/or in assembly/machine language. As usedherein, the term “machine-readable medium” refers to any computerprogram product, apparatus and/or device, such as for example magneticdiscs, optical disks, memory, and Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs),used to provide machine instructions and/or data to a programmableprocessor, including a machine-readable medium that receives machineinstructions as a machine-readable signal. The term “machine-readablesignal” refers to any signal used to provide machine instructions and/ordata to a programmable processor. The machine-readable medium may storesuch machine instructions non-transitorily, such as for example as woulda non-transient solid-state memory or a magnetic hard drive or anyequivalent storage medium. The machine-readable medium may alternativelyor additionally store such machine instructions in a transient manner,such as for example as would a processor cache or other random accessmemory associated with one or more physical processor cores.

To provide for interaction with a user, one or more aspects or featuresof the subject matter described herein may be implemented on a computerhaving a display device for displaying information to the user, and aninput interface by which the user may provide input to the computer.Other possible input devices include touch screens or othertouch-sensitive devices such as single or multi-point resistive orcapacitive trackpads, voice recognition hardware and software, and thelike.

Many variations and modifications may be made to the above-describedembodiments, the elements of which are to be understood as being amongother acceptable examples. All such modifications and variations areintended to be included herein within the scope of this disclosure. Theforegoing description details certain embodiments. It will beappreciated, however, that no matter how detailed the foregoing appearsin text, the systems and methods can be practiced in many ways. As isalso stated above, it should be noted that the use of particularterminology when describing certain features or aspects of the systemsand methods should not be taken to imply that the terminology is beingre-defined herein to be restricted to including any specificcharacteristics of the features or aspects of the systems and methodswith which that terminology is associated.

Various embodiments of the present disclosure may be a system, a method,and/or a computer program product at any possible technical detail levelof integration. The computer program product may include a computerreadable storage medium (or mediums) having computer readable programinstructions thereon for causing a processor to carry out aspects of thepresent disclosure.

For example, the functionality described herein may be performed assoftware instructions are executed by, and/or in response to softwareinstructions being executed by, one or more hardware processors and/orany other suitable computing devices. The software instructions and/orother executable code may be read from a computer readable storagemedium (or mediums).

The computer readable storage medium can be a tangible device that canretain and store data and/or instructions for use by an instructionexecution device. The computer readable storage medium may be, forexample, but is not limited to, an electronic storage device (includingany volatile and/or non-volatile electronic storage devices), a magneticstorage device, an optical storage device, an electromagnetic storagedevice, a semiconductor storage device, or any suitable combination ofthe foregoing. A non-exhaustive list of more specific examples of thecomputer readable storage medium includes the following: a portablecomputer diskette, a hard disk, a solid state drive, a random accessmemory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmableread-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), a static random access memory(SRAM), a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), a digitalversatile disk (DVD), a memory stick, a floppy disk, a mechanicallyencoded device such as punch-cards or raised structures in a groovehaving instructions recorded thereon, and any suitable combination ofthe foregoing. A computer readable storage medium, as used herein, isnot to be construed as being transitory signals per se, such as radiowaves or other freely propagating electromagnetic waves, electromagneticwaves propagating through a waveguide or other transmission media (e.g.,light pulses passing through a fiber-optic cable), or electrical signalstransmitted through a wire.

Computer readable program instructions (as also referred to herein as,for example, “code,” “instructions,” “module,” “application,” “softwareapplication,” and/or the like) for carrying out operations of thepresent disclosure may be assembler instructions,instruction-set-architecture (ISA) instructions, machine instructions,machine dependent instructions, microcode, firmware instructions,state-setting data, configuration data for integrated circuitry, oreither source code or object code written in any combination of one ormore programming languages, including an object oriented programminglanguage such as Java, C++, or the like, and procedural programminglanguages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programminglanguages. Computer readable program instructions may be callable fromother instructions or from itself, and/or may be invoked in response todetected events or interrupts. Computer readable program instructionsconfigured for execution on computing devices may be provided on acomputer readable storage medium, and/or as a digital download (and maybe originally stored in a compressed or installable format that requiresinstallation, decompression or decryption prior to execution) that maythen be stored on a computer readable storage medium. Such computerreadable program instructions may be stored, partially or fully, on amemory device (e.g., a computer readable storage medium) of theexecuting computing device, for execution by the computing device. Thecomputer readable program instructions may execute entirely on a user'scomputer (e.g., the executing computing device), partly on the user'scomputer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user'scomputer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remotecomputer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may beconnected to the user's computer through any type of network, includinga local area network (LAN) or a wide area network (WAN), or theconnection may be made to an external computer (for example, through theInternet using an Internet Service Provider). In some embodiments,electronic circuitry including, for example, programmable logiccircuitry, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGA), or programmable logicarrays (PLA) may execute the computer readable program instructions byutilizing state information of the computer readable programinstructions to personalize the electronic circuitry, in order toperform aspects of the present disclosure.

Aspects of the present disclosure are described herein with reference tomethods, apparatus (systems), and computer program products according toembodiments of the disclosure. It will be understood that each methodcan be implemented by computer readable program instructions. Thesecomputer readable program instructions may be provided to a processor ofa general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or otherprogrammable data processing apparatus to produce a machine, such thatthe instructions, which execute via the processor of the computer orother programmable data processing apparatus, create means forimplementing the functions/acts specified in the flowchart and/or blockdiagram block or blocks. These computer readable program instructionsmay also be stored in a computer readable storage medium that can directa computer, a programmable data processing apparatus, and/or otherdevices to function in a particular manner, such that the computerreadable storage medium having instructions stored therein comprises anarticle of manufacture including instructions which implement aspects ofthe function/act specified in the flowchart(s) and/or block diagram(s)block or blocks.

The technology described herein illustrates certain architecture,functionality, and operation of possible implementations of systems,methods, and computer program products according to various embodimentsof the present disclosure. In this regard, the functionality can beimplemented in software or hardware. The functionality can beimplemented by special purpose hardware-based systems that perform thespecified functions or acts or carry out combinations of special purposehardware and computer instructions. For example, any of the processes,methods, algorithms, elements, blocks, applications, or otherfunctionality (or portions of functionality) described in the precedingsections may be embodied in, and/or fully or partially automated via,electronic hardware such application-specific processors (e.g.,application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs)), programmableprocessors (e.g., field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs)),application-specific circuitry, and/or the like (any of which may alsocombine custom hard-wired logic, logic circuits, ASICs, FPGAs, etc. withcustom programming/execution of software instructions to accomplish thetechniques).

Any of the above-mentioned processors, and/or devices incorporating anyof the above-mentioned processors, may be referred to herein as, forexample, “computers,” “computer devices,” “computing devices,” “hardwarecomputing devices,” “hardware processors,” “processing units,” and/orthe like.

It will also be understood that, when a feature or element is referredto as being “connected”, “attached” or “coupled” to another feature orelement, it may be directly connected, attached or coupled to the otherfeature or element or intervening features or elements may be present.In contrast, when a feature or element is referred to as being “directlyconnected”, “directly attached” or “directly coupled” to another featureor element, there may be no intervening features or elements present.Although described or shown with respect to one embodiment, the featuresand elements so described or shown may apply to other embodiments. Itwill also be appreciated by those of skill in the art that references toa structure or feature that is disposed “adjacent” another feature mayhave portions that overlap or underlie the adjacent feature.

Terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particularembodiments and implementations only and is not intended to be limiting.For example, as used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” maybe intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the contextclearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that theterms “comprises” and/or “comprising,” when used in this specification,specify the presence of stated features, steps, operations, processes,functions, elements, and/or components, but do not preclude the presenceor addition of one or more other features, steps, operations, processes,functions, elements, components, and/or groups thereof. As used herein,the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more ofthe associated listed items and may be abbreviated as “/”.

In the descriptions above and in the claims, phrases such as “at leastone of” or “one or more of” may occur followed by a conjunctive list ofelements or features. The term “and/or” may also occur in a list of twoor more elements or features. Unless otherwise implicitly or explicitlycontradicted by the context in which it used, such a phrase is intendedto mean any of the listed elements or features individually or any ofthe recited elements or features in combination with any of the otherrecited elements or features. For example, the phrases “at least one ofA and B;” “one or more of A and B;” and “A and/or B” are each intendedto mean “A alone, B alone, or A and B together.” A similarinterpretation is also intended for lists including three or more items.For example, the phrases “at least one of A, B, and C;” “one or more ofA, B, and C;” and “A, B, and/or C” are each intended to mean “A alone, Balone, C alone, A and B together, A and C together, B and C together, orA and B and C together.” Use of the term “based on,” above and in theclaims is intended to mean, “based at least in part on,” such that anunrecited feature or element is also permissible.

Spatially relative terms, such as “forward”, “rearward”, “under”,“below”, “lower”, “over”, “upper” and the like, may be used herein forease of description to describe one element or feature's relationship toanother element(s) or feature(s) as illustrated in the figures. It willbe understood that the spatially relative terms are intended toencompass different orientations of the device in use or operation inaddition to the orientation depicted in the figures. For example, if adevice in the figures is inverted, elements described as “under” or“beneath” other elements or features would then be oriented “over” theother elements or features due to the inverted state. Thus, the term“under” may encompass both an orientation of over and under, dependingon the point of reference or orientation. The device may be otherwiseoriented (rotated 90 degrees or at other orientations) and the spatiallyrelative descriptors used herein interpreted accordingly. Similarly, theterms “upwardly”, “downwardly”, “vertical”, “horizontal” and the likemay be used herein for the purpose of explanation only unlessspecifically indicated otherwise.

As used herein in the specification and claims, including as used in theexamples and unless otherwise expressly specified, all numbers may beread as if prefaced by the word “about” or “approximately,” even if theterm does not expressly appear. The phrase “about” or “approximately”may be used when describing magnitude and/or position to indicate thatthe value and/or position described is within a reasonable expectedrange of values and/or positions. For example, a numeric value may havea value that is +/−0.1% of the stated value (or range of values), +/−1%of the stated value (or range of values), +/−2% of the stated value (orrange of values), +/−5% of the stated value (or range of values), +/−10%of the stated value (or range of values), etc. Any numerical valuesgiven herein should also be understood to include about or approximatelythat value, unless the context indicates otherwise.

For example, if the value “10” is disclosed, then “about 10” is alsodisclosed. Any numerical range recited herein is intended to include allsub-ranges subsumed therein. It is also understood that when a value isdisclosed that “less than or equal to” the value, “greater than or equalto the value” and possible ranges between values are also disclosed, asappropriately understood by the skilled artisan. For example, if thevalue “X” is disclosed the “less than or equal to X” as well as “greaterthan or equal to X” (e.g., where X is a numerical value) is alsodisclosed. It is also understood that the throughout the application,data is provided in a number of different formats, and that this data,may represent endpoints or starting points, and ranges for anycombination of the data points. For example, if a particular data point“10” and a particular data point “15” may be disclosed, it is understoodthat greater than, greater than or equal to, less than, less than orequal to, and equal to 10 and 15 may be considered disclosed as well asbetween 10 and 15. It is also understood that each unit between twoparticular units may be also disclosed. For example, if 10 and 15 may bedisclosed, then 11, 12, 13, and 14 may be also disclosed.

Although various illustrative embodiments have been disclosed, any of anumber of changes may be made to various embodiments without departingfrom the teachings herein. For example, the order in which variousdescribed method steps are performed may be changed or reconfigured indifferent or alternative embodiments, and in other embodiments one ormore method steps may be skipped altogether. Optional or desirablefeatures of various device and system embodiments may be included insome embodiments and not in others. Therefore, the foregoing descriptionis provided primarily for the purpose of example and should not beinterpreted to limit the scope of the claims and specific embodiments orparticular details or features disclosed.

The examples and illustrations included herein show, by way ofillustration and not of limitation, specific embodiments in which thedisclosed subject matter may be practiced. As mentioned, otherembodiments may be utilized and derived therefrom, such that structuraland logical substitutions and changes may be made without departing fromthe scope of this disclosure. Such embodiments of the disclosed subjectmatter may be referred to herein individually or collectively by theterm “invention” merely for convenience and without intending tovoluntarily limit the scope of this application to any single inventionor inventive concept, if more than one is, in fact, disclosed. Thus,although specific embodiments have been illustrated and describedherein, any arrangement calculated to achieve an intended, practical ordisclosed purpose, whether explicitly stated or implied, may besubstituted for the specific embodiments shown. This disclosure isintended to cover any and all adaptations or variations of variousembodiments. Combinations of the above embodiments, and otherembodiments not specifically described herein, will be apparent to thoseof skill in the art upon reviewing the above description.

The disclosed subject matter has been provided here with reference toone or more features or embodiments. Those skilled in the art willrecognize and appreciate that, despite of the detailed nature of theexample embodiments provided here, changes and modifications may beapplied to said embodiments without limiting or departing from thegenerally intended scope. These and various other adaptations andcombinations of the embodiments provided here are within the scope ofthe disclosed subject matter as defined by the disclosed elements andfeatures and their full set of equivalents.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method of generating an image of a target areathat includes multiple depth zones using an ultrasound device, themethod comprising: imaging a first zone by transmitting and receivingultrasound signals from an ultrasound array in the first zone usingplane wave imaging, the first zone having a depth dimension that extendsfrom a surface of an object being imaged to a first depth; imaging asecond zone by transmitting and receiving ultrasound signals from theultrasound array in the second zone using tissue harmonic imaging, thesecond depth zone extending from the first depth to a second depthfarther from the surface of the object than the first depth, the firstzone being between the second zone and the ultrasound array; imaging athird zone by transmitting and receiving ultrasound signals from theultrasound array in the third zone using fundamental and subharmonicdeep imaging, the third zone extending from the second depth to a thirddepth farther from the surface of the object than the second depth, thesecond zone being between the first zone and the third zone; and formingthe image based on the received signals from the first zone, the secondzone, and the third zone.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the firstdepth is in the range of 0.5 cm to about 10 cm.
 3. The method of claim1, wherein the second depth is in the range of 2 cm to about 18 cm. 4.The method of claim 1, wherein the third depth is in the range of 6 cmto about 18 cm.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the first depth isabout 3.2 cm plus or minus 2 cm, the second depth is 9.6 cm plus orminus 2 cm, and the third depth is 19.2 cm plus of minus 2 cm.
 6. Themethod of claim 1, wherein a depth extent of the imaging of the firstzone corresponds to an F # of 0 to about 1, wherein a depth extent ofthe imaging of the second zone corresponds to an F # of about 1 to about3, and wherein a depth extent of the imaging of the third zonecorresponds to an F # of about 3 to about
 6. 7. The method of claim 1,wherein imaging the first zone comprises imaging with an F # in therange of 0 to 1, wherein imaging the second zone comprises imaging withan F # in the range of 1 to 3, and imaging the third zone comprisesimaging with an F # in the range of 3 to
 6. 8. The method of claim 1,wherein the first zone is imaged with an F # smaller than the F # usedto image the second zone, and the third zone is imaged with an F #greater than the F # used to image the second zone.
 9. The method ofclaim 1, wherein imaging the first zone comprises accumulating signalsfrom a plurality of angles of plane wave transmissions to coherentlyaccumulate beamformed images and form a composite image.
 10. The methodof claim 1, further comprising processing the signals received in thesecond zone using power pulse inversion processing.
 11. The method ofclaim 1, wherein imaging the second zone comprise transmitting aplurality of focused ultrasound transmissions at a single frequency f.12. The method of claim 1, further comprising horizontally blendingpatches in the second zone and the third zone.
 13. The method of claim1, further comprising vertically blending patches at interfaces betweenthe first zone and the second zone, and the second zone and the thirdzone.
 14. The method of claim 1, wherein the array comprises 4 rows,each row having 128 elements.
 15. The method of claim 9, whereinaccumulating the signals for the plurality of angles of plane wavestransmissions comprises accumulating signals for five or more angles.16. The method of claim 9, wherein accumulating the signals for theplurality of angles of plane waves transmissions comprises accumulatingsignals for nine or more angles.
 17. The method of claim 9, whereinaccumulating the signals for the plurality of angles of plane wavestransmissions comprises accumulating signals for 11 or more angles. 18.The method of claim 12, wherein each patch in the second zone and eachpatch in the third zone has a height of the entirety of the respectivezone.
 19. The method of claim 12, wherein horizontally blending patchescomprises coherently summing respective phase and the amplitudeinformation from neighboring patches for each pixel from respectivereceive beamforming for a pixel of its own patch and for any overlappingpatches that may also contain said pixel.
 20. The method of claim 14,further comprising addressing each element of the array during imagingof the first zone, imaging of the second zone, and imaging of the thirdzone.